A Windfall Tax urgently needed || Moore St at the Féile || Where is the International Community?

A Windfall Tax urgently neededThe cost of living crisis is taking a terrible toll on families. Food and energy bills are increasing at a phenomenal rate pushing more and more people into debt and poverty. The ready excuse trotted out by governments and most of the media to explain this dire situation is Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war. While this is clearly having an impact it cannot explain the monstrous profits being made by the oil and gas industry and by energy companies world-wide. The dramatic increase in fuel and energy costs have pushed up production costs, transport costs and the price paid by the consumer for food and petrol and heating. It is all interconnected.Moore St at the FéileOn Monday Honor O’Brolchain, the grandniece of Joseph Plunkett, one of the executed leaders of 1916, and Seán Ó’Muirí and Cliodhna Nic Bhranair spoke of the work of the Moore Street Preservation Trust and their efforts to protect this historic quarter.Where is the International Community?Last Friday the government of Israel launched three days of unprovoked air strikes and artillery fire into the Gaza Strip. As a result 44 Palestinians, including 15 children, were killed and almost 400 were wounded.  The images on social media of children wrapped in their white shrouds and of others injured and crying were deeply distressing. In the last 14 years Israel has waged four wars on Gaza in which 4,000 people – over 1,000 of them children – have been killed.